Hello
by BluWine
Summary: Songfic based on Hello by Evanescense A family tragedy rips Will away from reality and a friend helps him regain hold on life and reminds him of what's left for him to love and loves him.


Title: Hello//An AU short story songfic of my first PotC AU actually...  
  
Author: BluWine  
  
Information: I'm using Patricia Taylor again because of one situation in this fic and I already introduced her in my other story, Things Change, as Will's best friend who knows him inside and out and doesn't take ish lying down. She knows how he reacts and what he means when he does or says something so she knows how to deal with him and how to react herself. I just rather wanted to explain that....  
  
Timeframe: Post-PotC had everything occurred as it had in the movie.  
  
Based on "Hello" by Evanescence written by Ben Moody, Amy Lee, and David Hodges  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the song "Hello" or the characters in this story except for Patricia, Neesa, Gwyneth and Darla Chassid. The plot is completely fictional and of my own imagination. "Hello" is under the copyright of Zombies Ate My Publishing, Forthefallen Publishing and Dwight Frye Music, Inc. Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer own Pirates of the Caribbean and the characters of the movie. I make no money out of this so don't sue.  
  
-:- Hello -:-  
  
//Playground school bells ring again. Rain clouds come to play again.//  
  
"Has he done anything lately?" Patricia asked, looking into the master bedroom.  
  
"No, miss," Neesa, the maid, answered softly. "Not since..." She motioned to the child in her arms. Patricia looked down at Gwyneth, smiling at the perfect child, only a month old. She was sleeping in her bundle of blankets. Patricia could see Elizabeth Swann-Turner in the child without even trying. Her father though was visible in the dark brown eyes that glowed like fire when they were open and awake. Thunder rolled outside and caused Gwen to stir.  
  
"Take Gwen to the nursery. I'll come in a bit and watch over her. Then you can take the afternoon off," Patricia requested.  
  
"Yes, miss," Neesa nodded, turning away to the nursery down the hall. Will Turner didn't even raise at the three females at his door as he sat on his chair staring blankly out the window.  
  
//Has no one told you she's not breathing?//  
  
**A month before**  
  
Will paced frantically in the downstairs drawing room. He could hear his wife's screams of agony as she birthed their first child. Darla Chassid, the midwife, refused to let him into the room so all he could do was wring his hands in his worry.  
  
He wished for the hundredth time that Patricia was here to ease a bit of his tense nerves but she was inland for some business, not even returning for another four weeks. Will knew the importance of managing her father's merchant business but this was his time of need! To hell with all the papers and goods and money talk! Will was about to become a father! He needed his best friend!  
  
Suddenly the screams stopped... Now he heard a baby's first cries that echoed through the large house and Will's heart skipped a beat. In two seconds, he went from pacing to running up the stairs. He skidded to a stop when Darla walked out of the room, cleaning her hands with a cloth. Her eyes were downcast and she looked up at the new father apologetically.  
  
"The missus didn't survive the birth, Mr. Turner," Darla announced. Darla had seen this too many times to count and she recognized the empty daze in Will's eyes when the news she had to deliver caused their world to go into a screeching halt.  
  
//Hello, I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to//  
  
Maybe if she had announced the birth of his daughter before the death of his wife, he wouldn't have reacted as he did...  
  
Will pushed the door open and ran to Elizabeth's side. Her whole body was drenched in sweat. Her hair stuck to her face in the moisture. As he put her hand in his, Will noticed the warmth that still radiated from Elizabeth's skin but he could see that her lips no longer breathed the air. He put her hand to his mouth as he began to sob his grief.  
  
"Mr. Turner... your daughter," Neesa said, holding out the tiny life to its father but Will ignored the maid and the crying baby.  
  
"Leave me and Elizabeth be," he muttered through tears, not even looking at the beautiful child. Neesa bit her lip, taken aback by the command. "LEAVE US!" Neesa and Darla scurried out of the room; the baby still unnamed, neither parents giving her any attention.  
  
Will's mind fought with his heart when he made plans to bury Elizabeth. His façade turned stony. His voice grew cold. He only relented to naming his daughter when Neesa had begged him to give attention to the child. He wouldn't touch or look at Gwyneth though. She was too horrible a reminder of what he was given, in exchange of what he lost.  
  
... Yes... maybe if he had the happiness of becoming a father to cushion the blow of Elizabeth's death... Maybe if... Maybe if...  
  
//If I smile and don't believe Soon I know I'll wake from this dream//  
  
Before Patricia returned from Kingston, he only had to close his eyes and any female presence would become Elizabeth. She was alive again and he would smile in happiness. They would have no daughter and they would be holding each other in the light of the sun when darkness covered his eyes in the present.  
  
However, Patricia's presence was too different from Elizabeth's poise. He'd long known the difference between the two women of his life. She walked into his bedroom, standing beside him silently. Will opened his eyes, tearing himself away from his reverie and Patricia looked down at him, her face portraying the pity she felt.  
  
//Don't try to fix me. I'm not broken//  
  
"Hello," Patricia said gently, when his eyes finally appeared. "I haven't seen you in awhile."  
  
"What are you doing here, Patricia?" Will snapped. "You weren't invited into this house."  
  
"I can't visit my best friend?" she asked calmly and patiently. "My best friend who dearly needs a helping hand right now?"  
  
"I do not need help," he growled.  
  
"Don't lie to me, Will... Don't tarnish Elizabeth's memory by denying the pain you feel with her death..."  
  
"She's... Elizabeth is not..."  
  
"She's not dead? Will, don't you dare even try to make yourself think that... She's gone."  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"Have you even seen Gwen? She's the exact image of Elizabeth... Your daughter is beautiful."  
  
"I have no daughter," he whispered bitterly.  
  
"Don't be selfish either! Gwen has lost her mother already. Would you have lived her life without a father as well!?"  
  
"If she weren't here, that question wouldn't even be relevant! If she weren't here, then ELIZABETH would still be here! It was HER life over Elizabeth's and God made it so that Elizabeth's life was taken from her!"  
  
"If Elizabeth had the choice, she would have chosen Gwen's life over hers! For her child, she would have chosen to die!" Will had jumped up at Patricia's statements. His hand flew across her face, the back of his palm slamming into her cheek. In some other situation, Will would have probably hated himself for laying a finger on Patricia but it wasn't. Instead of remorse, his anger radiated through Will.  
  
//Hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide.//  
  
"Don't YOU dare tell me Elizabeth would have chosen to leave me! She NEVER would've!" Will yelled.  
  
"She already made that choice, now didn't she." Patricia snapped, putting a hand on her red cheek. She was glaring at his refusal to get on with life and accept Elizabeth's passing, angrier at the fact that Will felt it appropriate to hit her for her truthful comments than at the fact that he hit her at all. She couldn't understand how he could feel so indifferent to his own child. Didn't he see that he should treasure what Elizabeth sacrificed everything to bring into this world?  
  
"Elizabeth did NOT make that choice! She would NOT have left me!"  
  
"Is that the lie you tell yourself?" Will stared down at her silently. "You think that in the end, she wouldn't have given up everything for YOUR child? Gwen is made from the love you and Elizabeth shared, and you won't even LOOK at her?!" Will turned away, put an arm on the glass and then leaned his head against it. "Don't be so self-centered, William. Elizabeth gave everything for Gwen to be here... She gave up her own BREATH so Gwen can be here. You're only disrespecting her memory by acting like the jackass that you are now..."  
  
//Don't cry//  
  
Patricia stormed out of the room, walking into the nursery where Neesa was cradling the baby on a rocking chair. Neesa looked up at Patricia and her mouth slightly gaped at the bruise, fast forming on her cheek.  
  
"Miss Taylor... Your cheek!" she gasped.  
  
"It's all right, Neesa," Patricia sighed. She took a deep calming breath before stepping up to the maid. "I'll take Gwen from here." Neesa nodded, solemnly and traded places with the other woman. The storm was getting stronger outside when the maid left and the roaring thunder stirred Gwen awake to restlessness. In the midst of the noise outside, Gwen began to cry as well.  
  
"Shhh," Patricia soothed, trying to calm the child. "Don't cry, Gwyneth... Don't worry... It's nothing that'll hurt you... Your Aunt Patricia is here... and..." Patricia looked up and around the empty room. It was dim because of the storm though it was only noon but it was as if something was keeping the shadowy light from becoming gloomy and the dim light remained soft and cozy. "And I think your Mama is here too..."  
  
As if they were the magic words, Gwen stopped crying and looked up at her "aunt." A tear fell from her eyes falling to the blankets that bundled up Gwen. Patricia could see so much of Elizabeth in Gwen that suddenly, her heart began to ache for the friend that she would never see again. Just as Gwen's crying died down, Patricia began to quietly sob.  
  
"You look so much like your mother," she whispered.  
  
//Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping//  
  
The cries of the baby next door seemed to break the walls that Patricia was clawing at, just moments before, in Will's head. His own tears began to fall and he was mentally screaming at himself for being such a bad father and for not realizing what Patricia had said earlier. He went to the nursery and stood at the doorway, watching his best friend calm his daughter. Her words broke his heart and his tears started to fall more freely down his cheeks. Patricia looked up at his sobs and smiled.  
  
"Come here..." she said through her tears.  
  
//Hello, I'm still here All that's left of yesterday.//  
  
"... Stubborn mule," Patricia smirked as Will kneeled down in front of her and looked at his child more closely than he ever had.  
  
"I thought so," Will replied. His hands grazed Gwen's cheek and his tears increased in volume. "You're right... She looks like Elizabeth. EXACTLY like Elizabeth..."  
  
"Except for the eyes, Will..." Gwen blinked her eyes, as if on cue. "That's all you... The Turner family trademark, if I do say so myself." Will was silent for a few moments...  
  
"Why do I feel like I lost everything?" he sobbed, his head resting at her chest.  
  
"No you haven't," Patricia cooed cradling his head with her free hand. "I'm still here... and Gwen is like a tangible memory of what you lost..."  
  
"But it doesn't change that she's gone..."  
  
"Nothing will..." she whispered. " Nevertheless, you have to go on, right? I had to go on after my father died... Now you have to go on after Elizabeth, if not for your sake, then for Gwen's..."  
  
"But you'll be here, right?" Will's head rose to look at her face to make sure she looked AND sounded sincere.  
  
"For as long as I can be here," Patricia promised, kissing his forehead. Will nodded, knowing it was the best that she could promise to him with the forces in the world that she, nor anyone else, could control.  
  
Will looked down at his daughter, awake and staring up at her father for the first time as Patricia moved to let him carry Gwen. For the first time, he felt the joy and unconditional love he would have for the little life in his arms and smiled.  
  
'Yes,' Will thought. 'I'll keep living for Gwen's sake...' He looked up and smiled at Patricia, sitting beside him on the arm of the chair. 'And at least, I'll still have a friend to keep me sane...'  
  
AN// Read *which you've done* and Review *which you'll do... won't you? +pout+* 


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